Memories by Mad Men: Cultural Memory, Television, and Early 1960s Domesticity - Bacon, Kelly M. A. (My University, 2012)
Memories by Mad Men: Cultural Memory, Television, and early 1960s Domesticity, is an interdisciplinary, major research project that examines how the AMC television series Mad Men, uses the early 1960s domesticity as a framework within the created world of the program. The paper then offers a close reading and critical analysis of Mad Men's use of television references within seasons one through four that address issues of early 1960s domesticity through the theories of cultural memory, specifically focusing on the works of Marita Sturken, Astrid Erll, Alison Landsberg, Nicola King, Svetlana Boym, and Fred Davis. This paper will conclude by reflecting upon how the role of television within Mad Men’s representation of early 1960s domesticity itself offers a metacommentary on television.
Keywords: Mad Men; Cultural Memory; Early 1960s Domesticity; Television; Memory Studies; Nostalgia; Prosthetic Memory; Metacommentary; Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Film and Media Studies; Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures; Television; Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies